The present invention relates to a device for visual signaling suitable for a moving vehicle.
It will find its application particularly in the field of automotive vehicle equipment for safety and signaling.
It is applicable to all moving vehicles such as buses, or else boats.
Automotive vehicles at present comprise more and more equipment to improve safety.
During foggy weather, in particular, it has already been proposed to offer to the following vehicle, from an equipped vehicle, information as to the distance separating the vehicle in front. For this purpose, there is known from WO-A-9520502 a device permitting a vehicle moving among other vehicles to transmit a signal to immediately following vehicles. This device uses a visible laser beam emitted from the device and directed in the direction opposite to the direction of movement of the equipped vehicle.
The laser beam is permanently directed such that the distance between the equipped vehicle and the point of impact of said beam on the roadway corresponds approximately to the safety distance that the immediately following vehicle should maintain. This device is particularly usable during intense rainfall or in foggy weather.
This device offers distance information useful to the following vehicle. However it does not give complete satisfaction.
In particular, such a device furnishes no explicit information to the following vehicle, particularly in the case of an accident, in the case of an emergency stopping simply to warn it of the use of a luminous point that can be seen on the roadway.
Moreover, this device is of interest only to the following vehicle and the vehicle with which it is equipped benefits from no information.
As a result, this device is of limited application and forms only very rudimentary information to a following vehicle.
It has also been proposed to supply information to a vehicle particularly as to the traffic on the road or as to possible accidents, from the dashboard of the vehicle thus equipped. Its driver could thus have access to various travel information or to data of the GPS type. However, such systems require substantial modification of the vehicle which can be made only at the time of construction of the vehicle. It is thus difficult to retrofit vehicles.
Moreover, such systems require display screens on the dashboard and onboard electronic devices that are relatively heavy and which increase the cost of such techniques.
The present invention permits overcoming the drawbacks of the techniques known at present.
To do this, it provides a new visible signaling device suitable for a vehicle, particularly an automotive vehicle, moving on a roadway.
This device has the advantage of offering to the following vehicle visual information particularly in rainy or foggy weather. To this end, the device emits a design which can be fixed or of a variable nature according to the type of information to communicate to the following vehicle.
As a result, the present device offers a wide range of application as to traffic information and permits warning the following vehicle for example of an accident, a fog bank to come, or else a malfunction in the vehicle which precedes it.
Another advantage of the device according to the invention is that it permits, according to a preferred modification, projecting forwardly of the vehicle thus equipped an informational design. This design could be identical to that projected rearwardly or be different particularly to give traffic information to the driver of the vehicle thus equipped.
The device according to the invention also has for its object to provide visible information predetermined by external control (for example provided by a roadway information transmission organism) or by detection of modification of the condition of the road or of the vehicle (for example detection of rainy weather, the triggering of an alarm of the vehicle, or of an airbag)
Another object of the invention is, according to a preferred embodiment, to assist the driver of the vehicle thus equipped in driving during foggy weather or rainy weather or generally speaking during poor visibility.
To do this, the device has the advantage of using marking strips on the ground in front of the vehicle and projecting onto them a laser beam which could sweep all the strip.
Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the description which follows, which gives the preferred embodiment of the invention but which is in no way thus limiting.
The present invention relates to a visual signaling device suitable for a moving vehicle, comprising a rear emitter for the emission of a laser beam to the rear of the vehicle, characterized by the fact that the rear emitter comprises means for generation of designs for projection by the laser beam of a signaling design to the rear of the vehicle.
This device could be present according to modifications introduced hereafter:
it comprises control means for the activation of the rear emitter for its conditional operation.
it comprises a front emitter for emitting a laser beam forwardly of the vehicle, said front emitter comprising means for generating designs for projection, by a laser beam, of a signaling design forwardly of the vehicle.
it comprises control means for the activation of the front emitter for its conditional operation.
the control means are connected to one or several detectors, for activation during detection of a change in condition of the vehicle or of meteorological conditions.
the control means are connected to a receiver for an external control signal, for activation during reception of the external control signal.
the means for generating designs are adapted to form a design from among several selected ones and the control means are adapted to address different controls to the emitter according to the nature of the design to be projected.
it is on a moving vehicle on a street, and it comprises at least one camera seeing a region in front of the vehicle in which are located marking strips on the ground, that are either central or lateral in the normal position of movement of the vehicle, video processing means for computing the position of the marking strips on the ground relative to the vehicle, and means for rotating the front emitter with controlled motorization to position the point of impact of the laser beam toward the marking strips on the ground.
the rotation means are actuated such that the point of impact of the beam sweeps the surface of the marking strip on the targeted ground.